Sunday, November 27, 2011

Severe monsoon rains that left Thailand submerged under floods last month killing more than 600 people have finally started to recede, exposing the full devastation to the country’s industry.

A Honda factory in Ayutthaya province was deluged in the worst floods in 50 years, leaving thousands of cars under water.

Today the rusted vehicles were pictured in a dry state, yet still ruined by water damage, making the plant look more like a dump yard than an auto factory.

Thousands of employees at Ayutthaya’s Rojana Industrial Park, host to Hitatchi, Honda and Sanyo, also lost their jobs due to the devastation.

In mid-October the water level reached almost ten feet high at the factory, but this week the level had sunk to around one-and-a-half feet.

The water is not expected to fully clear until early December and the flooding has severely affecting the country’s economy and tourism market.

The cost to Thailand has been estimated to be as much as 450billion baht (£9.2billion), which will mainly hit the industrial sector, the director of the Economic And Business Forcasting Centre at the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce said. Read More